UTM
Abbreviation with 3 meanings
| Stands for | Urchin Tracking Module |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 3 |
| Categories | Business & Finance, Geography & Places, Technology & Computing |
UTM has three meanings. The most common are Urchin Tracking Module (marketing & advertising) and Universal Transverse Mercator (geographic feature); it can also stand for Unified threat management.
Meanings of UTM at a glance
| # | UTM stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Urchin Tracking Module | Business & Finance › Marketing & Advertising |
| 2 | Universal Transverse Mercator | Geography & Places › Geographic Feature |
| 3 | Unified threat management | Technology & Computing › Cybersecurity |
1. Urchin Tracking Module
Business & Finance · Marketing & Advertising Abbreviations
Set of standard parameters added to the end of a URL, such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, that tell analytics tools where a visitor came from. They let marketers attribute traffic to specific emails, ads and posts.
Example: Every link in the newsletter carries UTM tags so we can see revenue by issue.
The name comes from Urchin Software, a web analytics company Google bought in 2005 and turned into Google Analytics. The five classic parameters are source, medium, campaign, term and content. Inconsistent capitalization of values, such as "Email" versus "email," splits reports, so teams keep naming conventions.
2. Universal Transverse Mercator
Geography & Places · Geographic Feature Abbreviations
Global coordinate system that divides Earth into 60 zones, each 6 degrees of longitude wide, and gives positions as eastings and northings in metres. It is widely used on topographic maps, in GPS units and by militaries.
Example: Search teams reported the location as UTM zone 13S, 412300 E, 4407200 N.
UTM is not used near the poles, where the Universal Polar Stereographic system takes over. The US military grid reference system (MGRS) is built on UTM.
3. Unified threat management
Technology & Computing · Cybersecurity Abbreviations
An all-in-one security appliance combining a firewall with intrusion prevention, antivirus, web filtering, VPN and spam filtering, aimed mainly at small and mid-sized businesses.
Example: The branch office runs a single UTM box that handles the firewall, VPN and content filtering.
The research firm IDC coined the term in 2004. Running many services on one box simplifies management but can create performance bottlenecks and a single point of failure, and the market has largely merged with next-generation firewalls. In digital marketing UTM means Urchin Tracking Module, the tags added to links for analytics.
Related abbreviations
More marketing & advertising abbreviations
- TRP – Target rating point
- TTL – Through the line
- UGC – User-generated content
- USP – Unique selling proposition
- UVP – Unique value proposition
- vCPM – Viewable cost per mille
- VOC – Voice of the customer
- VTR – View-through rate
See all 111 marketing & advertising abbreviations →